My DX6490 Kodak digital camera started behaving erratically today when I was out taking pictures. This is the second time this occurred (the first time i happened was July 1, 2010), I got this camera brand-new in early August 2004 - so I believe its time for me to get a new digital camera.

Here are the things I hate about my current digital camera -

- doesn't take very good pictures in low light (dusk, dimly-lit places),

- I have to wait several seconds between shots and I often miss a good action shot (when using sport mode),

- have problems taking close ups, even in close up mode - camera will not accept close up nor wide angle lenses, etc.,

- I have to really back up far away from the subject I'm photographing just to get all of the surrounding area in the view finder when snapping a picture - sometimes this is awkward or inconvenient,

- sometimes when taking pictures of people using flash the people in front (closest to camera) are too light, people in middle lit normally, but people in back (farthest from camera) are too dark,

- camera doesn't focus very well in natural indoor light (like in a shopping mall, etc.) resulting in blurry pictures, pictures tend to be blurry even when using PASM mode without a flash;

ok, now for the things I like about my current digital camera -

- it allows me to photograph moving subjects (like kids running around during a basketball game) very clearly (it freezes the movement of the basketball players, resulting in clear, crisp still photos of the players when using sport mode (and the flash),

- the camera is lightweight, compact so I can hold it in one hand and just aim and shoot the subject (while using sport mode),

- the batteries (I have 3 of them) are infinitely rechargeable,

- the camera is 4 mega pixel.

so I'd like a recommendation of the latest digital cameras that have all of the things I like about my digital camera and none of the things I hate about it, such as, I want a camera that -

- is lightweight/compact, can hold it in one hand, aim and shoot in sport mode using one hand,

- accepts wide angle, telephoto, macro, close-up lenses,

- with a flash that illuminates a group of people (closest to/middle/farthest from camera) evenly,

- accepts the current batteries that I'm now using with my DX6490 Kodak digital camera,

- focuses very well when taking pictures in natural light (such as in a store, restaurant, or shopping mall, etc) resulting in clear, crisp photos, not too dark when not using the flash,

- which I can snap, snap, snap, continuously by pressing the shutter button repeatedly at every setting/mode that I'm using, resulting in clear, crisp photos without having to wait several seconds until the camera resets/reboots (as in the case with my DX 6490 Kodak) and missing a good shot that I want regardless of whether I'm using a flash or not,

- takes superb pictures in low light (dusk, dimly-lit places),

- accepts the current memory cards (SanDisk/SD) that I'm using now.

Well, that's all I can think of at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

My budget is approx. $300 - $400, but if I can get a camera that has all the features that I'm looking for cheaper the cost, so be it.

There are a million point and shoot cameras out there to choose from.all i can tell you is look for one with a good optical zoom verses digital zoom, and you will never get away from the flash falloff problem you experience until you can bounce the light off the ceiling or a card with the flash head angled up. its the nature of light falloff. look up inverse square law to grasp it. you ask a lot from a little budget but in the time since your last purchase, quality has definitely gone up. also your current sd cards may be no match for higher resolution sensors that capture 10 times the data than your 4 megapixel did,so be prepared to update your cards to the 4 gig or higher range. i tell people to always shoot at the highest resolution their camera can take, so you can get the most out of it. people think just because they can get a thousand low res shots on a card that its great, but they are usually only good for 4x6.

You are asking the same kind of questions I began asking in 2004. I will give you the same good advice I received. Long story short, I was advised to go for a low end DSLR with interchangeable lenses. Long story short, I did that… and owe a huge debt of thanks to my forum friends for guiding me right. At that time I bought the lower end Rebel and one lens. Within 8 months I was making money with the Rebel, so I sold it to a friend and upgraded to the 20D. A year later I upgraded again to the 5D. I am still using both of them and they are still performing beautifully. My design/photography business continues to expand. I had intended on selling quality gallery prints next year but had to start early as requests starting coming before I could offer them.

Even if you don't intend to use your equipment for business, you will not regret paying a little more for a DLSR. Your budget is almost there. Go to Costco or another discount store and see what you can get a Rebel for. It will be a much better investment.

I have a Fuji Finepix 550EXR...16Mpix, 15x zoom, can take 1080p HDmovies has naturally some fancy settings like up to 360 deg panorama shots, I appreciate mostly that I can set it on Aperture Priority or Manual mode for more design options. I also like the 5cm Macro although my old Ricoh Caplio did 1cm macro.

There are a few issues to worry about when shooting in Raw, such as color space (Adobe 1998 vs. sRGB). I’ve used both color spaces, but sRGB is closer to most ink jet, pigment, and lab printers (the place where I get my photos printed requires sRGB). If you want all 12-bits of color (as opposed to the 8-bits of a JPEG) you will need to store your image as a TIFF.

When you shoot raw, whatever color space you set in your camera is utterly irrelevant.

A raw capture is essentially a very, very dark grayscale, linear image that contains nothing that a human eye would perceive as color. It's only the color space you choose in your raw conversion software that counts.

There are several camera out there with different brand names! Mostly digital cameras are known for two brand names! One is Nikon and Second one is Canon! Actually both are competitors of each others but if you are talking about quality, both are doing their jobs in a very best way!